Ft. Worth Belt Ry. Co. v. Jones

182 S.W. 1184, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 89
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 8, 1916
DocketNo. 8283.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 182 S.W. 1184 (Ft. Worth Belt Ry. Co. v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ft. Worth Belt Ry. Co. v. Jones, 182 S.W. 1184, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 89 (Tex. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

CONNER, C. J.

This suit was instituted in the district court on the 21st day of May, 1910, by the widow, children, and mother of Frank Jones against the Ft. Worth Belt Railway Company, seeking to recover damages in the sum of 850,000 on account of the death of said Frank Jones on March 2, 1910, while working as a switchman for the defendant company. The fatal accident occurred while the switching crew' was handling a long string of cars. The engine was pushing the cars ahead of it, and Jones and another switchman were riding on top of the car farthest from the engine. Jones and the man with him discovered a piece of iron pipe lying across one of the rails a short distance in advance of the train, and, fearing that the pipe would derail the cars, Jones arose from a sitting position and started to go down the ladder on the forward end of the forward car, with the evident purpose of removing the pipe before the train reached it. At or about the time, however, that he started down the ladder, Jones, or his fellow switchman, signaled to the engineer, who in obedience to the signal applied the emergency brakes, with the result that Jones was thrown forward to the ground, and before he could arise the train resumed its onward motion and ran over him and killed him.

The grounds of negligence alleged in the original petition were that the defendant company had permitted its track to become so obstructed with piles of dirt and iron pipe that the place of the accident was unsafe, and that it negligently failed to have the engine equipped with the proper brakes.

The defendant railway company pleaded the general denial, pleas of assumed risk and of contributory negligence, and impleaded Armour & Co., alleging that that company was engaged in the work of excavation near the track at the place of the accident, and that, if the pipe got on the track through the negligence of any one, such negligence was primarily that of the employés of Armour ft Co., and the prayer was that, if the defendant railway company should be held liable on account of the presence of the pipe od the track, it be permitted to recover ovei against Armour & Co.

On November 7, 1910, the plaintiffs filed an amended petition,' alleging substantially as before, except that the allegation of negligence in a failure to have the engine equipped with the proper brakes was abandoned, and it was added that the enginer was neg *1186 ligent in suddenly and yiolently stopping the train. It was also alleged that the defendant was guilty of negligence in failing to have a watchman at the place. On the day of this amendment the case was first tried, and resulted in a directed verdict in favor of Armour & Co. as against the cross-action asserted by the railway company, and in a verdict for the plaintiffs against the railway company for damages in the sum of $10,863. The only issue of negligence submitted to the Jury on that trial was whether or not the iron pipe referred to got on the rail through the negligence of the defendant railway company. On appeal to this court it was held by us that the evidence failed to support the issue of negligence on the part of the defendant railway company in obstructing its track with the iron pipe as submitted by the trial court, and, the Supreme Court having answered on certificate from us that the directed verdict in favor of Armour & Co. was correct (see Ft. Worth Belt Ry. Co. v. Jones [Sup.] 166 S. W. 1130), the case was remanded for a new trial as between the defendant railway company and the plaintiffs only.

Thereafter, on February 8, 1915, the plaintiffs filed an amended petition in which, after alleging negligence on the part of the defendant, as before, in permitting the obstruction of the railway track, they for the first time further alleged that Swope, the fellow switchman who was with deceased at the time, was negligent in giving the engineer the signal to stop, which, having been obeyed, resulted as before stated. The defendant, pleading as before, also alleged that the deceased and Swope were engaged in interstate commerce at the time, whereupon Helen Jones filed a plea of intervention as administratrix of the estate of the deceased, and prayed that she might be permitted to recover in that capacity in event it was found that the plaintiffs’ right of recovery rested upon the federal act regulating the liability of railroads for injuries to employés while engaged in interstate commerce. See Fed. Stat. Ann. Supp. 1909, bottom page 58-1 et sect-

The case was submitted upon numerous special issues, all of which were determined in favor of the plaintiffs, and judgment in the sum of $12,000 was awarded to Mrs. Helen Jones, as administratrix, for the benefit of herself and the deceased’s mother and children; the verdict and judgment specifying the particular amounts to which each was entitled. The defendant railway company has appealed.

[1] We will first briefly dispose of several questions about which we think there can be hut little, if any, controversy. A number of questions are presented by the assignments which relate to the issue of defendant’s plea that the deceased was engaged in interstate commerce at the time of his death. The jury found in answer to a special issue that the .“cut of cars,” referring to those upon which the deceased and his fellow switchman were at work, was not at the time engaged in “moving” or “handling” interstate commerce. The submission of this issue was objected to, among other things, and the verdict of the jury thereon is attacked on the ground that the undisputed evidence shows that the parties were employed in interstate commerce at the time of the accident in question. We will not review the evidence relating to the subject; for, if in any view the issue can be said to be material, we find that the appellant’s motion for new trial failed to continue the objection to the submission of the issue, and also wholly failed to question the finding of the jury thereon. So that, in view of the statute constituting the motion for new trial the assignments of error (R. S. art. 1612), it must be held that the previous objections have been waived, and that, as between the parties herein, the finding against appellant on the issue is conclusive. See Revised Statutes, art. 1986; Weinstein v. Acme Laundry, 166 S. W. 126.

[2] The fact that in form the recovery in this case was in the name of the executrix, as authorized and required by the federal Employers’ Liability Act, instead of in the name of the surviving wife, children, and parent of the deceased, as required under our statute, can be of no material moment in view of the fact that the verdict and judgment in this case specifies the particular amounts to which the wife, children, and surviving parent were entitled, both statutes alike requiring the action to be brought for the benefit of the persons named, with exception now unnecessary to notice.

[3] As alleged and shown in the testimony, employés of Armour & Co.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Peterson v. Union Pacific R. Co.
8 P.2d 627 (Utah Supreme Court, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
182 S.W. 1184, 1916 Tex. App. LEXIS 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ft-worth-belt-ry-co-v-jones-texapp-1916.